Portable SolUtioN for dIstributed geNeration in a BOX

Project Information

SUNINBOX

Grant agreement ID: 738842

DOI

10.3030/738842

Project closed

EC signature date 20 February 2017

Start date 1 February 2017

End date 31 July 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 2 010 775,00

EU contribution

€ 1 407 542,50

Coordinated by

SOLARBOX SOLAR SOLUTIONS SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 5 - SUNINBOX (Portable SolUtioN for dIstributed geNeration in a BOX)

Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2019-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Suninbox aims at covering the lack of solutions in the off-grid market with a solar field designed to operate at one meter above the ground to achieve high performance and, in addition, able to be transported and stored in a standard container, providing a pioneering solution in the market. Suninbox integrates in a certified container all the components necessary to generate electricity autonomously. It arises from a joint business venture between Solarbox Solar Solutions and Generaciones Fotovoltaicas de la Mancha (GFM).

Suninbox contributes to society by offering a compact, portable and clean energy solution for remote and rural locations. There are a lot of activities for both, work and domestic applications, that can benefit using off-grid energy systems. Especially the agricultural sector is highly affected by the intensive energy requirements of the irrigation systems and pumping solutions, with an average required installed power. These mobile systems allow to obtain energy in places where it cannot be obtained directly from the grid or increase its demand in places where it is necessary, decreasing the cost of depreciation of the energy sources, this fact often happens in developed and developing countries. Suninbox can be used anywhere where electricity is needed, providing renewable energies at a lower price than a diesel generator both in developed and developing countries.

The objectives of the project are:
• Optimisation and scale-up of Suninbox’s solar tracker, decreasing by 30% its manufacturing costs.
• Optimisation of the semi-automatic rail system to extract the solar PV sun-capture infrastructure in an easy way from the container.
• Integration of high-efficiency photovoltaic panels in a modular solution for 12 kW nominal of electricity generation in a profitable way adapted for different types of power.
• Demonstrate the reliability of Suninbox as a standalone independent system.
• Testing the effectiveness of the systems as “Plug and Play” installation device.
• The upgrading of a dedicated software (SW) for the optimum control of the overall solution’s components and subsystems.
• Demonstration of the full system at operating conditions.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the development of the project, the main objective of the members of the consortium has been to obtain a final product that meets the characteristics and functions that were originally studied, but adding the necessary improvements, which were observed during its design and construction. All the improvements that have been made to the prototype have been due to the effort, testing and continuous study of the system that makes up Suninbox by the members of the engineering team and the technical team. The Suninbox prototype has undergone several functional and equipment distribution improvements. In this way a complete photovoltaic system has been obtained, including the photovoltaic field with Solar Tracker, assembled inside a container, optimizing the available space and reducing the maintenance of all the equipment, to achieve a final product easy to install and use, obtaining Large amount of energy.
A wide dissemination and commercialization work has been done carried out. Attendance at international fairs and energy events is very important for the development of the project, since international contacts with energy companies and NGOs interested in this type of solutions offered by Suninbox are expanding. These trade fairs have been a great opportunity to publicize the product and inform about the features and advantages it offers. The marketing team has informed of the participation to these events and trade fairs on the website of Suninbox, explaining the reason for the assistance and offering graphic documents of the activities.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The socio-economic impact of this project is mainly to provide electricity through a source of renewable energy at very low cost. Photovoltaic energy is a clean, renewable and economical source of energy, the main benefits of this energy are to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, to avoid global warming and to generate electricity to small isolated nuclei of the grid. This latter case happens in a high percentage of non-electrified areas mainly in developing countries and in European rural areas where the demanded power needs to be increased.
Suninbox is developed to impact at a first step on two types of markets.:
• Irrigation areas: In areas dedicated to agriculture and where there are large number of farms, it is necessary to increase the use of energy to supply this demand, this is especially true in South of Europe, where the solar radiation is also very high, which the conditions for the use of the photovoltaic energy are perfect. Until the moment the solution was to obtain energy through a diesel generator, Suninbox aims to improve the efficiency of a diesel generator by lowering the cost of energy and eliminating the production of CO2.
• Smart remote energy grids and rural electrification projects: Suninbox offers the opportunity to supply power to areas where grid accessibility is too small or too difficult. In areas of Africa or Latin America solar radiation is very high and accessibility to energy is complicated, with this mobile system is intended to contribute to the local development of these areas. In Africa, the cost of energy Suninbox is less than 0.3€/kWh compared to more than 0.5€/kWh for a diesel generation.
Suninbox contributes to the development of rural and isolated areas, promoting agriculture and facilitating access to electricity.
SUNINBOX is an autonomous device that acts as an uninterrupted generator of electrical energy from a solar source, without emissions, using a 100% renewable resource and allowing the continuous self-supply of electrical energy disconnected from the grid. It allows you to create intelligent networks by connecting disassembled units or integrate into other existing networks.
The main novelty lies in its easy portability thanks to the fact that all the mechanisms are integrated in a metal box and the connection / disconnection takes place in a few minutes. Just open it, and starts to generate green energy.

Suninbox offers innovative technology for the production of clean energy and autonomously, easy to transport and assemble, very useful for use in remote areas, developing populations, for areas where natural disasters have occurred, for places in armed conflicts, fields of refugees, including for military missions. All this makes Suninbox an attractive product for private companies and public bodies interested in investing in sustainable development.

A Smart Grid is being developed within the MiniGrid Suninbox to ensure that the energy has a distributed management, generation and storage.
Suninbox is a pioneer product in the photovoltaic energy market due to the distribution of its equipment and components, since the main advantage of this product is the ease of installation and commissioning, accessible to practically any user. In addition to helping to obtain clean energy from the sun, it can be used by combining different renewable energy to obtain energy improvements and thus improving the energy efficiency of the environment.

Panels and Box

In the Box2

The Solar Panels

The Solarbox

In the Box1